Worth the Trade (More Than A Game) (15 page)

Hunter wondered what she could offer to the conversation. She’d never been good at small talk. Especially the kind that didn’t revolve around baseball.

“Do you know much about the game?” Hunter knew plenty of owners, not to mention their wives, who didn’t know the difference between a force and fly out. Let alone the infield fly rule.

“Oh, I know the basics. You know, there’s a pitcher and a batter. The object of the game is to reach all four bases and score a run. But I get a little confused on what the difference between an earned run and a not-earned run. How do they determine an error and what the heck is the difference between a dinger and a tater? Is there a baseball lingo cheat sheet or something?”

“The best way to pick it up is to watch the game, listen to it on the radio.”

“Should I follow a fantasy league?” Annabelle asked on the escalators up to the women’s career wear department. “Clayton spends a lot of time on the Internet checking out different player’s stats.”

“I guess, but there’s more to a player than just his stats.”

“Like his abs and lats?” Anabelle gave her a knowing grin.

“Trust me, after twenty years in the locker room, one well-toned body is pretty much the same as the next.”

Liar. But she didn’t need to tell the other woman about Marco’s assets. They already had that knowledge in common.

“Oh, that’s a nice suit.” Hunter tried to change the subject by approaching the mannequin showing a designer suit very similar to the one she was wearing.

“I thought you wanted to upgrade.” Annabelle dragged her away from her usual section, over to another display. This one a lot more trendy. “How about this?”

Annabelle fingered the sleeve of an orange blazer.

“No. Too bright.”

“You could use a little more color in your wardrobe, though. Let’s keep looking.”

Two hours later, Hunter sat in the department store’s café, surrounded by shopping bags full of new clothes. She’d updated her black and gray staples with a pale blue blazer and a coordinating blue and ivory silk blouse. She’d traded her boxy jackets for more form-fitting styles and somehow Annabelle had talked her into an electric blue trench coat. She added two pair of dark denim jeans and a few silk T-shirts in basic black, white, and soft pink that she could wear with her suits or jeans.

“Next stop, the makeup counter,” Annabelle said enthusiastically after they’d paid for their lunch.

“I think I’ve taken enough of your time.” Hunter wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep up with a fancy makeup routine, anyway.

“Nonsense. This has been fun. Really.” Annabelle’s eyes shone with sincerity. And maybe a little bit of loneliness. “I’ve enjoyed spending the day with you. Even if you haven’t spilled anything about this mystery man.”

Hunter’s cheeks flamed. Part of her really wished she could share, but it wasn’t a good idea. Maybe someday, but certainly not during the season, and not with her partner’s wife.

“You’re thinking about him right now, aren’t you?” Annabelle sounded almost giddy. “Are you going to see him tonight?”

“No. Not tonight. He’s… He’s working. But when I do see him again, I think I would like to look pretty for him.”

“Oh, you’re gorgeous. The only thing you lack is confidence.” Annabelle shook her head. “Come on, let’s go spend a small fortune on powdered confidence. And a little lipstick.”

* * * *

After leading off the second inning with a single to right, Marco didn’t do shit at the plate that night. He kept looking behind the backstop and when he didn’t find Hunter sitting there, scorebook in hand, lace bra hidden beneath her suit jacket, he couldn’t quite get his head back in the game. Not good considering it was only the second game of a six game road trip.

They lost a close game, putting them two games behind L.A., the team they would face next before heading back to San Francisco to finish the month of August. Then they would hit the road again. It would be his first trip back to St. Louis since the trade. He had to get this figured out before heading back to the town that had embraced him and set him free in less than a season.

Damn. He missed her. Missed touching her, holding her. He missed the post-workout conversations. When he was naked and satisfied and relaxed, he was more open to hearing how he was dropping his shoulder on his swing, or if he pulled his head on the inside fastball. He wondered if she’d seen the game. Had she caught an error in his mechanics? Or was his problem mental?

He grabbed a bite to eat from the clubhouse and headed straight to his room. A lot of the guys didn’t feel like going out after a loss. Marco just wanted to go straight to bed. Too bad he was alone.

He wasn’t going to call her. But he found his fingers pulling up Hunter’s number.

“Hey.” He closed his eyes, trying to picture what color bra she’d be wearing today. Had she put on the red one? Or the leopard print? Or had she gone back to the white cotton? They all got his heart racing, his blood pumping and his thoughts heading in the opposite direction of where he needed them.

“Hey yourself.” Her voice was sexier than he remembered.

“Come down here.” He hadn’t meant to ask her that. He wasn’t desperate. He just wanted her. Desperately.

“I have work to do.”

“It’s the weekend. Can’t you take a couple of days off?” He might just have to beg.

“You’ll be leaving by the time I could get down there.” She had a teasing note in her voice, like maybe she’d consider it.

“We have an evening game. Five o’clock start. It’s an hour and a half flight.”

“You really want me to fly down there so we could spend a couple of hours together before your game?”

“Yes. Come on, you know I’m worth it,” Marco teased.

“Oh really?”

“I miss you.” He stretched out, wishing the bed wasn’t so big. “I wish you were here with me right now.”

“What would you do if I was?”

“What wouldn’t I do?” Marco groaned. “I’d like to think I’d have enough restraint to get you up to my room before ravishing you.”

“Ravishing me?” Her teasing tone got under his skin, right behind the letters of his uniform.

“Yes. I’d press you against the door. Kissing you breathless before taking you into my arms and carrying you to the bed.”

“Oh my.” She let out a soft sigh.

“I’d help you let your hair down, running my fingers through the silky strands. Burying my face in the sweet smell of you.”

“Marco, please.” Oh, how he loved the way she said those two little words. And all the various ways she said it.

“And I’d kiss you some more. On the lips. The soft skin behind your ear. Your breasts, belly and…everywhere.”

“Everywhere?” Her voice caught with apprehension, and arousal.

“Everywhere. I want to taste all of you. I want to show you pleasure like you’ve never known before.”

“Why?” she asked simply. “Why me?”

“Because.” He was on the verge of telling her he was falling for her. Falling hard. But damn it. That wasn’t something he could do over the phone. It wasn’t something he could do even in person. “Because you’re the sexiest, most amazing woman I’ve ever known.”

“I had lunch with Annabelle today.”

“I guess that’s nice.” Not exactly the direction he wanted the conversation to go.

“We went shopping. She helped me spruce up my wardrobe.”

“Really?” He wondered why she was changing the subject. They had been this close to phone sex, but maybe he’d end up more frustrated than before.

“Yeah. Kind of like one of those makeover things that girls do.”

“Honey, you don’t need a makeover.” Marco resisted the urge to relieve the pressure in his groin. “You’re perfect just the way you are.”

“Oh, so I should send all that lingerie back? If I don’t need it?”

“No. Don’t do that.” She was killing him.

“So you do want to see me looking like a girl,” she teased.

“Not a girl.” He was going to need a very cold shower when he got off the phone. “A woman. Pure, sexy, one hundred percent woman.”

“How do you do it?” She had a slight quiver in her voice. “How do you see me as something I’m not? Something I didn’t ever know I wanted to be?”

“What do you want to be?”

“Yours.” Her voice was barely audible. “I want to be the sexy, strong, confident woman you seem to think I am.”

“I don’t think, I know.” Marco wished he could reach through the phone, and show her just how strong, sexy, and amazing she was. “Please, I’m begging you. Come down here. Hunter, I need you.”

“You need me? Why, because you won four games in a row after sleeping with me? So I must be your good luck charm?”

Something like that.

“Forget it.” Marco pretended he wasn’t hurt. She was brushing him off, downplaying their relationship as if it was just a pregame ritual. “Hey, what’s the worst that could happen? We lose tomorrow and head into L.A. three games back. If they sweep, we’ll be six out, but there’s always the wild card.”

“Not good enough.”

* * * *

Fear of flying had never been an issue for Hunter before. Neither had motion sickness. So the feeling that she just might need to gather up all the little paper bags on this flight to San Diego for her personal use must have something to do with the fact that she couldn’t turn down Marco’s plea to come down here.

She could turn around. Fly back to San Francisco and pretend she wasn’t afraid of losing the two things that had come to mean the most to her. Her team. And Marco Santiago.

Why had she made that stupid bet? Or why couldn’t she have bet something other than control of the team? Money would have been more logical. But then logic and Marco didn’t seem to exist together.

Just look at her. She was sitting on an airplane, waiting to land in San Diego so she could hook up with one of her players before he took the field tonight. She was wearing jeans and heels for goodness sake, not to mention a red lace bra and matching panties.

When had she become this impulsive, daring woman who would take off at a moment’s notice just for a little hanky-panky? When she met Marco. Just thinking of his strong hands, his soft yet-masculine mouth, and his blistering blue eyes sent a little shiver down her spine.

When the plane finally landed, she couldn’t wait to get to his hotel room and surprise him. She grabbed her carry-on bag, the one packed with mostly lingerie, and made her way to the car waiting outside the terminal.

She walked into the hotel lobby just as Marco was coming out of the elevators. He walked right passed her, but then stopped, turned around, and grabbed her bag. He led her back to the bank of elevators.

“Checking in?” he asked. His gaze took in her low cut tank top, snug fitting jeans, and high heels. His smile spread wide when he got to her face. “I think they’re completely booked.”

“I guess I’ll just have to share a room, then.” Hunter had never had another man look at her with such desire, such blatant need.

The elevator doors slid open and he held his hand over the opening as she stepped inside. Other people on board kept them from attacking each other before they could get to the room.

“I was just trying to kill time by walking around the city before batting practice.” Marco slid the keycard into the slot of his room. “But I guess I’ll stick around.”

“I think we can find some way of keeping you occupied until the game.” She entered the room ahead of him and waited until she heard him slide the deadbolt before jumping into his arms.

He lifted her and carried her to the bed. He loosened the ponytail she’d brushed her hair into and buried his face into her long tresses.

“I missed you.” His words were another caress. It wasn’t enough that he touched her with his hands, his mouth. His voice penetrated deep inside her. “Are you wearing jeans?”

“Yes. I went shopping.”

“For me?” His voice deepened as he dropped his head to examine her new clothes more closely. “You bought these sexy jeans just for me?”

“Yes.” Her heart fluttered as he slowly undid the button and slid the zipper down.